


This is Not the Little Mermaid

by themrsbouvier



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Other, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-29
Updated: 2014-05-21
Packaged: 2018-01-10 12:08:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1159570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themrsbouvier/pseuds/themrsbouvier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cute fisherman falls off his boat, a mermaid saves his life and they live happily ever after. Or you know..not</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. WTF?

The Ocean; bright, blue and endless; filled with possibilities and freedom. It was the main reason Louis had always dreamed of being a fisherman. It didn’t require any post-secondary education and he was free to do as he pleased without being bothered by responsibilities. Sure he still had to do some actual fishing every now and then but it’s not like he was working a 9-5 or a serious fisherman with deadlines and contracts. He did as he pleased and that’s how he liked it. Just him, his boat and the open sea. Louis had never dreamed of doing anything else. He could remember when his dad would take him down to the harbor on weekends and they’d watch the ships take off. Every summer they’d pack a lunch and watch the sailboat races. It was the only real memory he had of his father. Eating sandwiches and listening to his dad tell him stories about mermaids and sea creatures out there in the ocean. After his dad died it was the only thing he could think about. His dad had never once been out on the open sea and Louis felt like he owed it to his memory to learn everything he could about boats and the sea. He owed it to both of them to find out if any of the tales were true like his dad always dreamed about.

He was 21 now and he was finally doing it. He’d gotten real dead beat jobs for the last ten years to scrimp and save enough to buy his own boat. When he was 18 he’d finally gotten his boating license and it was the happiest day of his life. At least it was until he’d finally handed over the last bit of money and was given the keys to his boat. His. No one could take it away from him. He named the boat Freedom because that’s what it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be his key to freedom. Since the day he’d gotten it he’d spent almost every second on the boat, cleaning her or prepping her for the long voyage. He didn’t know where he was going but he was looking for something and he wasn’t coming back until he found it.

He’d been on the sea for nearing two weeks now. Two weeks of just him and the sea, most people might have gone mad by now. Hell he thought he would have gone mad by now but he had one thing keeping him sane. Just one thought was all it took to keep him sane, finding a mermaid. He knew if he’d told anyone what he was planning they would have sent him straight to the nut house but if there was one thing his father had instilled in him it was faith. He believed with ever part of him that mermaids existed somewhere out there and he was going to find them. He’d had a pretty smooth journey so far. Boring but smooth. The weather had been nice and he’d even managed to get a bit of a tan but tonight the sky was darker than normal and he worried there was going to be a storm. He didn’t have much practice sailing through storms and he’d never done it alone. He readied the ship as best he could and hoped the storm would hold off till the morning at least. It would be a little easier to handle in the daylight. He headed to bed with his head full of dreams about mermaids and adventures on the sea. But even in his most imaginative of dreams he couldn’t imagine what happened next.

Louis shifted in his sleep, he was cold and wet and it was getting harder to breath. He opened his eyes and jumped from his bed, rushing to the deck. The storm was bad. Worse than he had imagined. The sky was black and cloudy, the rain pouring down on him in buckets. The waves were large and angry in a way he had never seen them before. He ran around trying to stop his sinking ship but it was to no avail. A wave crashed down on the ship and ripped Louis into it’s depths. All he could think about was that he was going to die without ever having seen a mermaid. He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable.

Louis opened his eyes and coughed up a lungful of water, rolling on his side and trying not to throw up. He didn’t understand what happened. He was on a beach somewhere and alive. He quickly pushed himself up onto his feet and looked around for anything to explain what happened to him. He saw something moving in the water and he slowly waded back out. He could see a man treading water. He was the most gorgeous thing Louis had ever seen. He walked out until the water was at his waist before stopping, close enough to the boy he could speak without yelling. “Who are you? How did I get here? Where am I?”

The man smiled and moved closer to Louis. He tilted his head to the side and looked at him like he didn’t know what he was. “Liam. I’m Liam. I saved you. Your ship sank out there, you’re not a very good sailor are you?” He laughed and swam in a circle around Louis. ‘Not a good swimmer either. You can’t breathe in the water yet you didn’t even try to move your arms and legs. Not very smart are you?”

Louis glared at him before splashing him in a pointless gesture. “OI! I’ll have you know I’m an excellent swimmer and okay maybe not so excellent at sailing but this wasn’t my fault. The storm.”

Liam just laughed and swam backwards. “You should stay on land where you belong. The ocean doesn’t like you Louis Tomlinson!” With that he turned and swam away, his tail peeking out of the ocean just enough for Louis to catch a glimpse.

Louis stared after him still upset and annoyed, “How did you-“ His eyes widened when he caught sight of Liam’s tail before falling down on his butt in the water. “A mermaid. He was a real freaking mermaid.”


	2. The truth comes in waves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis tracks down the truth but it isn't at all what he imagined.

It’s been a week since Louis boat had sank in the ocean. The insurance company had given him a lot of trouble but Louis never took no for an answer. They had finally settled and given him enough to get a new boat. It left him a little heartbroken but at least now he had a purpose. He’d worked hard on his boat and knowing that it was gone was devastating. But this time he’d gone and boat a boat specifically for searching for mermaids. He’d even named it Lost at Sea to honor his first encounter. It might not have been everything he’d hoped it would be but he had still met a real live mermaid and that was enough.  
  
The last week had been spent sitting on the dock where he tied his boat going through all of his dads research again. He had a plan this time. He was planning on returning to where he had surfaced last time and he was going to stay there until he saw that mermaid again. Liam. He was everything the books said a mermaid was. Gorgeous, tricky, playful, and terrifying. Louis knew that there was something darker to Liam. Something he hadn’t witnessed and he shouldn’t want to witness but he did. His dad spent his life searching for the truth about mermaids and Louis was going to finish his work. He needed to find out more about Liam. He just needed to see him again. For purely scientific reasons, of course.  
  
This led him to where he was now. Loading up his boat and preparing to head out in search of Liam. He wasn’t coming back until he found him. He prepped the boat and took one last look back towards his home. He had a feeling he might not ever see it again and if he did it might not be the same. He turned away and set sail. He had no idea if this was going to work. He had a plan, a bad plan but he knew from experience that his plans usually failed. But he didn’t know what else to do. The last time he’d seen Liam it had been when his ship sank so he’d come up with a theory. Mermaids liked treasure. That was a fact but he figured Liam was more sentimental than that. There weren’t lots of stories about hero Mermaids. But yet Liam had saved him. So he figured Liam liked saving people, saving things maybe. Maybe he really was in some twisted version of the Little Mermaid. He could imagine Liam with a secret cave full of human stuff and it made him laugh. But just in case he’d mapped out a bunch of recent suspected ship wrecks and if he couldn’t find Liam where he’d last seen him he would start searching them.  
  
It took him two days to return to the scene of his wreck. He’d though it’d be a lot scarier. Returning to the place where he had almost died should have been a bigger deal but the anticipation and excitement of possible discovering the truth about mermaids and seeing Liam again was just stronger. He anchored the ship and sat on the deck. He hadn’t actually planned what to do next. How was he supposed to get Liam to show himself? Ships must pass through here all the time and no one has ever reported a mermaid sighting. He needed something to attract his attention. He jumped up from his seat and ran into his bunk. Liam like human things, so he could lure him out with human things. He grabbed one of his dads old science awards and brought it back out onto the deck. He stood at the edge of the boat and looked down at the water. He dropped the trophy into the water before pulling up his anchor and setting sail for one of the ship wrecks on his map.  
  
It didn’t take long for him to get a reaction. He’d only been at the first sight for a couple of hours before he’d dozed off. A loud bang startled him out of his sleep. He jumped up onto his feet and nearly tripped over his fathers trophy. He stared at it for a second before bending down and picking it up. A huge grin spread across his face and he walked over to the edge of the boat.  
  
“Liam? Is that you?” He leaned over the edge of the boat in an effort to try and see him under the water.  
  
It had gotten dark so it was hard to see and he leaned a little farther than he should have. The next thing he knew he was falling over the edge of the boat and into the cold dark water. It didn’t feel like drowning. He wasn’t drowning. He could very easily just swim back up to the surface but he didn’t. He opened his eyes and looked around. He knew he was here, he could feel him he just needed to see him. But he didn’t see him, he was suddenly being rushed to the surface and lifted back onto his boat. For a second it had felt like he was flying. He hit the hard, cold surface of the deck and he sat up, coughing water. He shook the water out of his face and opened his eyes. He was there, tail and everything glaring at him from the side of the boat deck.  
  
“You’re an idiot. I told you to stay away,” Liam was quiet but Louis could tell he meant every word.  
  
Louis inched a little closer, “I had to know. I had to see you again. I needed to finish..”  
  
Liam sighed and shook his head. “You’ve been trying to find me but I’ve always been watching you. You’re dad..I met him once. The day my parents died. He was on a boat with some fisherman. Doing research I guess and my parents got caught in one of their fishing nets. It was late and your dad found them but it was too late. They’d struggled against the ropes too much and…they died. I was still young and didn’t understand. Your dad found me and he helped me. I’ve known you your whole life. When you were younger your dad would bring you down to see me.” He laughed and shook his head. “You were a crappy swimmer back then too.”  
  
Louis stared at him and furrowed his eyebrows. He didn’t remember that. He couldn’t remember any of this but he believed Liam. He remembered his dad always taking him down to the pier but he..why couldn’t he remember him. “I don’t remember you. I’m sorry.”  
  
Liam shrugged, “You were young and never very smart. I didn’t expect you too. I didn’t expect you to find me ever either. But you have an attraction for danger. Someone has to make sure you don’t kill yourself. Just stay out of the water. Go home and stop looking for me. I’ll find you from now on. It’s safer.”  
  
Liam jumped back over the edge of the boat and into the water. The deck was sprayed by water and Louis almost slipped on his run to the edge. “But how are you going to know when I need you?”  
  
Liam popped his head back out of the water and grinned, “I just know and besides I’m never very far. I don’t have anywhere to go and you’re interesting.”  
  
He was gone before Louis could say anything else. He didn’t know what it was about that mermaid that annoyed him and intrigued him. He just found out that his dad knew about mermaids. There was nothing for him to finish. He felt like his whole life was a lie. He couldn’t go home. He needed to find his own adventure and somehow he knew he’d be okay because Liam was watching out for him.


End file.
